Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 103, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 May 1918 — BRITISH NAVAL RECORDS HOLD TALES OF FIGHTS WITH U-BOATS [ARTICLE]

BRITISH NAVAL RECORDS HOLD TALES OF FIGHTS WITH U-BOATS

Stories In Brief Form Reveal German Savagery and Frightfulness, With Occasional Touches of Comedy—Many Describe Hairbreadth Escapes and Gallant Defense by British Sailors. ..

London.—ln a big room in Whitehall there are kept all the records of British merchant ships’ encounters with U-boats. There they are, volumes and volumes of the post damning evidence, indelible for all time, of German savagery and British bravery. Ever since Germany’s cold-blooded frightfulness at sea began these records have been piling up in this room; and only now are they being allowed to see the light. * They tell of all kinds of ships, from big liners down to tiny schooners. All are short, but realistic, testifying to the British merchant sailors’ behavior against the ugliest methods of German Warfare. They tell of fights with submarines, often against enormous odds, and of hairbreadth escapes; of gallant rescues and perilous adventures In small boats on the open seas; of German submarine crews who jeered at their victims, and of some few cases where the German crews helped to rescue them. Here is a typical story of a fight between a merchantman with a little gun and a U-boat. It is perhaps one of the longest of the records. There was a heavy sea, with squalls of rain, and the time was five minutes to three in the mornlpg. The captain says: Sighted Submarine Ahead. "Almost immediately I sighted a submarine right ahead, crossing from starboard to port. It was a very big one, and there were four or five men around the conning tower. I put helm hard a-starboard and tried to ram him, but missed by feet, as I could hear the men shouting aboard her. As soon as I saw I had missed her I sung out to>the gun’s crew: ‘Look out close on port side there!’ and I put the helm hard aport to bring the enemy astern. “Almost Immediately afterward I heard the report of my gun, and, turning round, saw a big bright flareup in the water in the port quarter like a big explosion. This was verified by the gun’s crew, the second officer and the mate, who was the spotting officer. About ten minutes afterward I noticed what appeared to be the wake of a torpedo passing along the port side, and I shouted the gun’s crew: ‘Look out -port quarter again!’ and put the helm to port;-but as I was calling out my orders second officer and gun’s crew observed the bow and stern wake of a submarine on port quarter steering parallel to us and coming on at a good speed. “We fired on him, but made no hit, and I ordered the men to cease fire, as I hoped to escape in the darkness, and the flash of the gun was very brilliant, it being a dark) night. I then ordered the chief engineer to get his men down the stokehold and drive the vessel to his utmost, and ordered the gun’s crew to stand by gun, and every one to put a lifebelt on. , The captain continues with a fine touch of unintentional bravado: Felt Enemy Was Pursuing. “As the had not yet had their coffee I told the steward to get it for them and went back to the bridge and spoke to the second officer about keeping a sharp lookout, as I felt somehow that the enemy was chasing us.” He was, sure enough, for, adds the captain: “About twenty minutes past six o’clock I went below to the chart room to get our position again, and almost Immediately I heard a terrific explosion on the port side. I ran up on the bridge and ordered all boats out and called the wireless operator to send out an S O JTand give our position. As broke down almost Immediately we got no reply. A few seconds after the first explosion I heard th« heavy, dull, explosions

from the bursting boilers and the ship was involved in steam, smoke and fumes.” • A few minutes later the vessel sank and, as most of the boats were smashed, the captain and some of the crew jumped into the sea and swam until picked up some hours later. In all these records the commanders and crews of the U-boat are seen face to face and their actions and words are set down without prejudice. There is a tale of a terrible struggle with death in the case of a torpedoed ship, boats smashed, the only two that reached the water being upside down. Some of the crew jumped from the vessel and sought refuge on them. U-Boat Up Three Times. The U-boat approached them and ordered the survivors to come on board the submarine. They shouted back that they were capsized and could not move. Three times the submarine came up with a similar invitation; three times the commander received the same reply. Then the U-boat came Alongside one of the upturned boats, took the name of the ship and the master and all the details. The crew of the enemy craft was asked by these shipwrecked men to help right their boat for them, but no answer was given, though the Germans must have heard the frantic knockings of one poor chap Imprisoned under the capsized boat and who was trying to attract attention to his pitiful plight. The submarine steamed ahead and put the helm hard over, with the result that the men clinging to the keel of the boat were thrown into the water again. They managed to scramble back to their boat, with tin man still underneath it, but they pulled out the plug to give him air, and ten hours later they were rescued. The Germans take elaborate steps to find out the name of the ship they have sunk and the nature of her cargo. In one case a master, while engaged with his crew baling out a leaky lifeboat, was hailed by the submarine for the name of his ship. It was given to him, but the commander shouted back that h£ could not find the name in the shipping list and ordered one of the crew to go on board. The emissary spelt the name and the officer disappeared into the conning tower and three-quarters of an hour later he returned and said he had found the name of the ship. Photographed Two Negroes. Another ship carried a crew of 47, two of whom were negroes. The ship was torpedoed in the usual way without warning and sank so rapidly that there was no time to lower the boats, though luckily the entire crew had lifebelts. Seeing a negro In the water, the commander of the submarine took him on board, and as soon as he reached the submarine his wrists were imprisoned and held. They then took

a photograph of him and also of the other negro, who was floating on a raft nearby. The first man was then allowed to dive from the submarine and he, too, swam to the raft. These photographs were clearly intended for German propaganda. Out of the crew of 47 men only 15 are known to have been picked up. The captain of the ship was left on the bridge when the boat went down and was not seen again. The saved men were in the water for hours together, the U-boat as usual submerging and leaving them to their fate. Among all the tales of cool and splendid behavior, which Sir Rosslyn Wemyss in paying a tribute to the British merchant navy recently described as “beyond all praise,” is that, of a stewardess of a big liner, which went down, according to one account, in seven minutes after the explosion. The master says: “The stewardess behaved exceptionally well, and with great presence of mind gave mufflers and other articles to the crew when they were in the boat.” It is in this story that one of the very few acts of humane conduct on the part of a German submarine commander is recorded. “Submarine picked up two of the men in the water himself, after which we went alongside the submarine and took the two men on board.” Among all these records of horror, bravery and cruelty there are little glints of -something almost approaching comedy. Take, for instance, the record of a little South Coast schooner, which was sunk a some way from home. The first part of the story is that of the master told to the British consul abroad. The master described how, when the ship was struck, three men got- into the boat. Before the fourth man could get in an accident occurred and the boat was upset. The master reported four men drowned —what happened to the fourth man is not clear—-and remarked that “those drowned became too excited.” His ship had been heavily shelled for a long time, but the German shooting was very bad. The captain and boy, who remained on board, were taken on board the submarine and released five hours later and put on board a foreign ship. The captain was unable to give any description of the submarine: “Captain could not describe submarine. He said he was sent below at once—Step!’ ” The next part of the story is from one of the* men whom the master thought lost. He gives an idyllic picture of the scene before the shelling: Vessel in Full Sail. “The vessel had all sail except the mizzen gaff topsail set. The wind was abeam, the vessel on the port tack, heading southeast and east. The master was standing by the helmsman. The mate was talking to the master, both on the lee side of the poop. She was making six or seven knots through the water the master asked the mate: ‘ls that a submarine?’ The mate had a look at it and said: ‘Yes, It is.’ The master took the wheel and ordered all hands to get the boat out. Before the boat got into the water the submarine started shelling.” Then the disaster happened. The man on the boat reported that "noth: Ing has been heard of vessel since deponent last saw her.” It seems that “about three hours after leaving ship boat righted and was baled out.” But a most interesting part of the storv is missing; for one would like to know whether master and crew met again and what they said to one another.' Says the mate of another little ship: "Master’s reason for abandoning ship was that she sank under him.” And, as is but natural, the seaman’s pride in his ship is often revealed in these records; as "She went down with hardly a splash, like the lady she always was,” and “I shall never got another like her.”